Chapter 952 Wings of Cold Frost <TOC> Chapter 954 The Wild Witch
Translator: SumTLMan
When the Wings of Cold Frost embarked on its journey from the Savage Grottoes, it was not only seen off by a dozen wizards, but also by a multitude of apprentices.
Among those apprentices, Angel recognized a few familiar figures.
Baruba and David were there, but the most eye-catching of all was White Bear clad in a black and white panda outfit.
With his short staff wildly waving in the air, White Bear caught Angel’s attention. As Angel turned his gaze, White Bear seemed to sigh in relief. Opening his mouth wide, he repeatedly mouthed a single word.
“Doll—”
Angel thought for a moment and produced a slightly yellowed white bear doll from a corner of his bracelet.
Was White Bear referring to this?
“This bear doll… it appears to be just an ordinary one?” Madeleine’s voice echoed nearby.
Angel nodded, “Indeed, this is merely an ordinary doll. It belongs to a friend of mine, and it seems to be of great value to him.”
Madeleine wondered aloud, “Could it be a kind of emotional anchor?”
Angel glanced at the pendant hanging around the doll’s neck and confirmed, “Indeed, it probably represents something he deeply cherishes.”
Madeleine’s expression grew nostalgic, “I remember I had something similar when I was just a normal person. I lost it on an adventure… I was heartbroken at the time, but now, it doesn’t stir much emotion.”
Time wears down everything.
When one lives long enough, even the most treasured memories fail to elicit much emotion.
Looking at the doll, Angel contemplated the lip-read words White Bear had uttered earlier.
White Bear kept mentioning the doll—was he reminding Angel not to forget this doll?
Angel remembered this doll, seemingly gifted to him by Totoro through the gesture of White Bear. Yet, hitherto, the doll seemed to have played no significant role, nor had Angel discovered any secrets hidden within its fabric.
Just as Madeline had stated, it was but an ordinary doll—a piece of handicraft void of novelty.
Angel removed a square pendant from the neck of White Bear doll.
Opening the pendant, it contained a portrait the size of a postage stamp. It was a depiction of a young boy, and a woman whose features were blurred.
The boy was White Bear, but the woman’s identity was an enigma even to White Bear himself.
Besides the miniature portrait, a tiny note was tucked within the pendant, inscribed with a message from when White Bear initially bestowed the doll upon him.
The message read, roughly: Totoro had once prophesied, instructing White Bear to give his most treasured possession to Angel. After much deliberation, White Bear ultimately decided to pass on this doll to Angel.
Angel was aware that Totoro’s prophecies were always spot on. Moreover, even if Totoro had foreseen something, he would usually keep it to himself, unless the prophecy concerned Angel.
White Bear had also mentioned that the doll’s bequeathment to Angel was undoubtedly due to a prophecy made by Totoro. However, the specifics were unknown even to White Bear himself.
“What does this doll signify?” Angel pondered in silence.
But no revelation was forthcoming. In the end, he decided to keep it first; perhaps the opportune moment had yet to arrive.
However, as Angel was folding White Bear’s note to put it back into the pendant, his gaze accidentally swept over the note’s lowest portion.
That was where White Bear’s signature was located.
——Hobson Silai.
“Hobson Silai?” Angel was, in fact, aware of White Bear’s name, yet his habit of referring to him as White Bear caused a momentary delay in his reaction upon seeing this name.
By the time his senses returned, his gaze was magnetically drawn to the surname of White Bear.
“Silai, Silai… It rings a bell, where have I heard it before?” Angel’s brow furrowed as he cracked open the box of his memories, rapidly thumbing through the remnants of the past. Soon enough, a flashback flickered across the canvas of his mind.
It was a few months ago, during his maiden journey to Rhodes to fetch goods for Eureka. Upon sighting Blaire, Rosam’s first question was, “Esteemed guest, are you here to claim Lady Silai’s goods?”
Lady Silai refers to Eureka, and Silai?
In that case, this… Hobson Silai?
Could there be some blood connection between these two?
Angel was suddenly struck with a surreal sensation, akin to watching a farcical drama. One was White Bear who had taken the initiative to get close to him, the other was Eureka, who had mysteriously been a long-term resident at Pat Manor.
Angel had never imagined any linkage between the two, until now.
“What are you musing over? Don’t tell me, this white bear doll was gifted to you by your crush?” Madeline’s voice, tinged with playful teasing, floated into Angel’s ears.
Angel shook his head, “No, it’s just from a friend… By the way, Lady Madeline, may I pose a question?”
Madeline casually nodded, “Sure, as long as it doesn’t touch upon personal matters.”
“Lady, have you ever heard of Blood Shadow Dagger?”
Madeline’s brows knitted together, “How did you come across her?”
Angel shook his head, “Just thought of something out of the blue.”
“If what you’re thinking is related to Blood Shadow Dagger, I advise you to desist from further probing. She is tied to the secrets of King Guman, the more you know, the worse off you may be.” Madeline originally hailed from a wizard family in the Kingdom of Guman, thus was more privy to these arcane affairs than most. She understood the horror of King Guman more than anyone else.
Angel: “I understand.”
Madeleine held her tongue, noting that Angel was a man of discretion. “As long as you understand, that’s all that matters. What would you like to know about her? If it’s concerning the artifact, I’m afraid I’m at a loss.”
Madeleine was aware that Eureka had once stolen King Guman’s artifact. From her perspective, it was only natural for Angel, an alchemist, to harbor interest in such an object.
“It’s unrelated to the artifact. I simply wanted to ask, do you know the surname of the Blood Shadow Dagger?”
A surname? Madeleine pondered for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it. However, the rumor was that Eureka stole King Guman’s artifact because her kin were exterminated by him… If that’s indeed the case, looking into the clans that have been wiped out by King Guman over the years might give you an answer. That said, there were so many people exterminated by King Guman that the task of searching for the right one won’t be a cakewalk.”
Upon hearing Madeleine’s words, Angel’s mind was instantly brought back to when he was first contacted by White Bear, who shared details about his background.
White Bear claimed he was born in the Kingdom of Guman and, guided by destiny, had journeyed from there to the Savage Grottoes over the span of thirteen years.
He repeatedly emphasized the multitude of hardships that he had faced in life. He never divulged the specifics of why, however. But piecing together Madeleine’s words, Angel speculated, could it be that White Bear’s family was exterminated by King Guman, leading to the subsequent events involving Eureka?
The notion was utterly preposterous.
Angel couldn’t confirm whether this was indeed the case, and he didn’t bother to delve deeper. Regardless of whether White Bear and Eureka were connected, at this point, it held no bearing on his own affairs.
What still remained a mystery to him was why Totoro had White Bear pass the doll onto him. What was the underlying purpose? Was it merely to hint that White Bear and Eureka were intertwined?
As Angel found himself sinking into contemplation, an unexpected event abruptly descended upon the Wings of Cold Frost.
The Wings of Cold Frost were navigating normally, when suddenly, a dark crack materialized not far from the aft wing.
The moment the rift appeared, it was detected by the Frost Moon Alliance’s escort team, who swiftly increased the speed of the Wings of Cold Frost in an attempt to distance the ship from the site of the rift as quickly as possible.
This rift was a spatial tear in reality.
The spatial rift initially manifested as a mere thread, but quickly, like the spider-web pattern created by a fist striking glass, the rift began to rapidly sprawl. As the lines of fracture met their ends, a swath of collapsed anomalous space materialized in its place.
A colossal gravitational pull created a void in its surroundings. An unidentified immense power descended, temporarily stabilizing this abnormal space and affecting only a small radius.
This immense force stemmed from the World Will.
This spatial anomaly will persist until the merging of the two planes. Only after the fusion is complete will the World Will truly undertake a comprehensive restoration of space.
“Fortuitously, it was detected early. Otherwise, being sucked in would have posed quite the predicament,” an officer from the Frost Moon Guards expressed his relief. Even full-fledged wizards, observing the collapsed anomalous space from afar, would feel an inexplicable shiver of horror.
The rest of the guard squad readily concurred.
However, their relief was premature. At that moment, a message arrived from the main control of Wings of Cold Frost: another rift had appeared not far ahead!
And the Wings of Cold Frost was currently accelerating, possibly heading for a direct collision with the rift.
Upon receiving this news, all the Frost Moon Guards were taken aback, immediately springing into action.
They needed to exert every effort to prevent the Wings of Cold Frost from crashing into the rift.
The catastrophe hadn’t occurred yet, they still had a buffer of more than ten seconds. To an ordinary person, a dozen seconds is fleeting, but for wizards, it is ample time.
The efficiency of the Wings of Cold Frost was pushed to its peak. Turning around was difficult, but reducing speed was a more feasible option.
Currently engrossed in his thoughts, Angel hadn’t noticed anything amiss, not until the Wings of Cold Frost began to decelerate drastically, an odd sensation he couldn’t quite put his finger on. However, before he could suss out the circumstances, Madeline grasped his shoulder, whisking him skywards.
“What’s the matter?” Angel cast a puzzled gaze at Madeline.
Madeline pointed towards the slowly distancing Wings of Cold Frost, “There’s a spatial rift forming ahead. Although it’s not certain the Wings of Cold Frost will collide with it, prudence dictates we avoid it for now.”
As Madeline explained, Angel’s attention spanned the surrounding area, noting the majority of wizards suspended mid-air.
Undoubtedly, they too had detected the anomaly ahead.
It was then that Angel observed the spatial rift in the process of formation in the distance. As his gaze fixed on it, myriad calculations flashed before his eyes. Only a few seconds of observation, and he had roughly estimated that the Wings of Cold Frost were unlikely to crash.
But at that very moment, an inexplicable attraction occurred between the previously occurring anomalous space and the rift on this side.
Almost instantly, the rift expanded by several folds, and with a visibly collapsing pace, warped a corner of the space, giving birth to a new abnormal spatial region.
And the scope of this abnormal space was vast!
Given the current speed of the Wings of Cold Frost, attempting to halt outside the anomalous space would pose quite a challenge!
Chapter 952 Wings of Cold Frost <TOC> Chapter 954 The Wild Witch